


Survival of the Luckiest

by Zelkova48



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Black Comedy, Gem Egg Hell, Gemlings, Gen, Infanticide, Poems, Short, Tragedy/Comedy, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-01-22 21:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21308869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelkova48/pseuds/Zelkova48
Summary: The comically tragic tale of Lapis Lazuli and Peridot's accident prone Gemlings as told through a collection of short stories and poems.
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also available on Fanfiction.net

The barn was rife with a palpable air of mirth and joy today as the sound of celebration rung loudly for all to hear in the quiet countryside. The Crystal Gems, and resident studious swordswomen Connie Maheswaran, clamored noisily around a large clutch of dimly glowing geodes nestled atop a bed of straw eagerly awaiting their hatching as Lapis Lazuli and Peridot looked on in a barely restrained maelstrom of emotions.

The two Gems through tender love, sheer determination and maybe just a smidge of luck have accomplished something that had not been achieved for their kind in countless millennia and three eras of Gem civilization; they had procreated naturally (or as naturally as can be conceived by two non-carbon based lifeforms).

Soon, all the geodes stopped glowing and began hatching one by one. The process was agonizingly slow but patience was in good supply.

The geodes started to rock back and forth ever so slightly to beat of some silent rhythm. First one, then another and another until they were all rattling like bottles on the shelf of a rowdy tavern.

The first crack on a geode that appeared was keenly observed with bated breath.

Scratchings, though faint, could be heard emanating from it. Steadily the Gemling within began working its way out of its shell; clawing, chipping and forcing away thin chunks of the rocky shell that separated it from the world beyond.

A small piece was flicked away revealing the tip of a stubby blue hand and its spindly digits, followed by another which revealed a stubby blue foot. Both times sent a small spray of fluids misting the air.

This Gemling in particular was a born fighter. It scratched and clawed with a vigor unbefitting of a youngling until finally after what felt like eons it emerged in its entirety with an audible crack as the geode was split wide open.

It was a baby lapis lazuli and it immediately began to struggle in its new environment.

In an instant all the energy that the lapis lazuli displayed earlier during its great escape evaporated into nothingness as it curled itself into a tight ball and began trembling in the newly felt breeze covered in a sort of viscous translucent amniotic goop and loose geode fragments.

The Gemling chirped helplessly and hearts aplenty melted at the sound.

This process repeated itself over the better half of an hour. Some had more trouble than others but the runt of the litter trapped in the smallest geode was taking its sweet time. It had begun its escape attempt but stopped midway due to lack of strength. It's tiny trembling finger stuck outstretched from the pin sized hole in its geode in a desperate plea for help, squeaking like a dog toy in rapid succession to add to its already precarious situation.

Hearing it cry and holler in futility between the cracks was almost enough to make Lapis or Peridot step in and help, but instinct told them otherwise. This was something that the runt had to achieve on its own in order to cement its survival capabilities. It was do or die, whether they wanted to admit it to themselves or not.

Thankfully their inaction was rewarded when the runt ceased it crying part way through and resumed scratching with renewed determination.

Seconds ticked away like the shortening fuse on a lit stick of dynamite before it finally managed to carve out a hole marginally smaller than its own self to squeeze out of. With clumsy unsure movement it somehow managed to wiggle free from the geode's opening and messily plop itself nearby its other siblings, splattering them with more of the amniotic goop, and after a curt moment of triumph began to bawl uncontrollably.

Fitting for a newborn Peridot, some might say.

And there it was. Twelve healthy beautiful little Gemlings, crying and mewling, kicking and swiping at the air with barely functional nubs of a limb, came bravely into this new world.

Their bodies were so small, just barely fitting in the palm of a human hand. Their eyes remained squeezed shut and their hearing left a lot to be desired. They were vulnerable in every sense of the word, but knowing who their parents were they'd do everything in their power to ensure that their children grow up healthy and strong.

After a quick wash with Lapis's hydrokinetic powers and a careful drying with Peridot's slapdash looking hair dryer, they deposited their newborn into a warm bundle of blankets in Steven's old cradle, which he had so generously donated to the couple, for all to admire and adore.

There were twelve in all, five snivelling peridots (which Steven had colloquially nicknamed '_peritots_'), four content lapis lazulis (which Steven had colloquially nicknamed '_la'petites_'), and three quivering turquoises (which Steven had colloquially nicknamed '_super duper special surprises_' because he hadn't expected anything other than little baby lapis lazulis and peridots).

Interestingly, very few were of the garden variety type Gem while the rest had hybridized features. Peridots with slight blue coloration or unique hair shape, lapis lazulis with a greenish gradient and bizarre gem deformities, that sort of thing. Needless to say regardless of how they look they were to be loved all the same.

This was a momentous occasion for the proud parents and a landmark achievement for Gemkind in its entirety.

* * *

Impossible did not even begin to explain the nature of their circumstances, but that was not the issue to be cautious of. Unbeknownst to everyone present Gemlings are actually quite the handful, and not in a good way.

Confused?

Well, let's dive into that, shall we?

Greetings and bienvenue, honored guests. You may call me the Narrator and I will be your humble guide to this tragic comedy.

It'll be a tale of cruel hilarity, where the purely innocent are subjected to stomach churning horrors usually reserved for nosey investigators, comic book heroes and snot nosed teenager being stalked by a masked serial killer with a twisted sense of humor.

You may laugh, you may cry, you may even come to hate me after all is said and done or just feel apathetic overall. All understandable reactions, really.

But enough about us.

Let's start from the beginning.

A prelude if you will to better understand what you are getting into.

* * *

History is a funny thing. You can write everything down, do all the research you are capable of and still have gaps in the timeline that require an external source of information to put into context. The complex nature of Gem procreation and rearing of newborn Gemlings is such a gap, lost to the annals of time immemorial.

Why, nobody knows.

Few who still live know of what it was like, even fewer who have experienced it firsthand.

Not even the Diamonds in all their radiance have the answer anymore, eons old as they are.

So please let me, the Narrator, fill in those gaps for you.

In short, natural procreation for Gems just didn't cut it anymore.

They're not like organics with our flesh and blood bodies and mayfly lifespan. No. Gemkind was something else entirely; highly advanced beings of light and energy so ancient that even the thought of intergalactic conquest was once an alien concept even to them. The complicated intricacies behind their propagation very much reflected them.

And in the time since their inception reproducing and thriving as a species soon came to a crossroads.

You see, there is a simple reason why Gems eventually relied on the more efficient if resource consuming process of the kindergartens. Why Gems are born en masse fully formed (with the occasional defect or off color here and there) and capable of performing all the tasks required of them with their preternatural abilities from their very first precious minutes of life, and that reason is this:

Gemlings without constant around the clock supervision and/or specialized containment, and that's being _very_ optimistic about it, are some of the most _death prone_ and _implausibly unlucky_ newborns to ever have the misfortune of being brought into the light of existence.

Incredibly, it eventually became too much of a hassle to bear and raise gemlings, even taking into account a Gem's near limitless lifespan, hardy build and technological superiority, that it had begun to actively damage the continued existence of Gem civilization.

It's true.

The death to birth rates of these adorable little critters run almost parallel to one another, with barely a fraction of the litter surviving to their preoperational stage of child development, let alone proper adulthood, in spite of the explosive numbers born during each birthing that all Gems were capable of. Which in hindsight may have been to ensure the survival of the species due to their unreasonably high mortality rating.

Theoretically speaking, Gemkind could very well have gone extinct had they maintained their strenuous base reproductive cycle for any longer than they had.

Their aggressively slow rate of growth doesn't help either, with it taking roughly two Earth decades just to reach the Gemling equivalent of a human three year old. And while twenty years may not feel that long to older more mature Gems, to Gemlings it may very well be a hellish eternity compounded with the ever present dangers of life looming over them at every corner of their development.

Whether it be due to parental negligence (hey, it happens), blatant stupidity (Gemlings, while more intelligent when compared to most infants, aren't immune to making terrible decisions) or "_natural causes_" (which, in case you missed the use of quotations, is a blanket term for accidents. So, _so many_ accidents) sooner or later, and most likely sooner, those hapless whimpering jelly beans are gonna meet a grisly end before they can even speak.

Assuming they don't just explode out of the blue for no reason whatsoever.

It's happened before.

Honest.

By the end of this story, only one out of the twelve adorable bundles of joy will survive their treacherous journey to preadolescence.

Maybe.

As for the rest? Well, you'll just have to find out.

But for now, let's enjoy the festivities while they last.

Before the tragedy starts...

I am your humble guide, the Narrator. And I hope you stick around for a story absolutely filled to the brim with black comedy.


	2. Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gemlings get names

Oh? Why, hello there.

Welcome back, my honored guests.

_Welcome back_.

Truth be told I hadn't been expecting you to be back so soon.

But then again I assume you're either an aficionado of the macabre, a very attentive listener, _I'm flattered_, or just someone with a mild fascination of the abomination looking to indulge in a guilty pleasure.

I don't judge.

And since you are so eager for me to continue, why should I waste your time with such loathsome introductory spiel?

Now, let's get right into it.

Once again I am the Narrator, your humble guide to this tragic comedy.

And when I last spoke it had been about the miracle of Lapis Lazuli and Peridot's love and all the tiresome baggage that came with it...

* * *

Twelve little newborn Gemlings, innocent and vulnerable, wriggled about each other blindly like a cluster of garter snakes in their warm blanket nest and cradle. Their movements were so twitchy, so nervous, so unsure of itself as though their tiny nubs of a limbs were completely foreign to them. Of course, being barely an hour old their lack of motor skills, let alone proper hand eye coordination, was entirely understandable.

What this humorous display of the infants' limited capabilities did was make everyone nearby gush at how cute they were.

Babies were good at that,_ so I'm told_.

Peridot wasted no time in naming the Gemlings, or at least she had wanted to. She'd a list in hand that'd been carefully curated and painstakingly researched by her to ensure the absolute best names for her children.

Lapis merely rolled her eyes at Peridot's unbridled enthusiasm and promptly tore up the list in her hand. Both she and Peridot had promised to name them _together_, and that's what they were gonna do.

Peridot smiled back sheepishly as the fruits of her labor, the list not the Gemlings, fluttered away in the uncaring wind. She knew better than to argue with her better half.

There was only one hard rule to follow: _no Camp Pining Hearts names_.

That means no _Percy_, no _Pierre_, and definitely absolutely positively no _Paulette_.

Lapis reasoned that naming her kids after someone else, especially the cast members of their favorite cheesy Earth television show, would cheapen the experience.

A name had a sort of power attached to it, something Gems who are commonly referred to either by gem type, its variants or serial designation number couldn't possibly have understood.

A name was special, it would eventually define an individual as much as their actions did.

Peridot, after a long period of reflection, agreed to the assessment, albeit begrudgingly.

It should be noted early on that you can't really blame the parents on their choice of name. Peridot was prone to vertical thinking and Lapis's track record with imagination was shoddy at best. In Lapis's case this was the same gem who made a meep morp about her experiences with _baseball_ and the time Steven gave her a _leaf_.

In order of oldest to youngest, these were the names of their children.

* * *

The firstborn and eldest of the litter was a lapis lazuli that they had named **Kara**.

Why?

Well, because Kara sounded tough, and that's exactly what she was.

Kara's features were still developing but for the most part she was a garden variety lapis lazuli. Her most prominent aspect was her hair, which was rounded at the top and then tapered sharply downward into a point, forming an upside down teardrop shape.

Kara's teeny tiny teardrop shaped gem was located at the base of her neck and was upside down like her hair.

* * *

The second oldest of the litter was a turquoise.

The average turquoise is hardy bluish green Gem with thin usually weblike dark blue patterns that ran throughout their whole body. They also sport a length of dark green hair atop their head like a ponytail. They primarily functioned as gatherers and salvagers in Gem society and were usually dispatched to recover important resources in harsh environments.

The turquoise infants were the largest of the litter, being a whole finger's width larger than the lapis lazulis and at least twice that much than the peridots.

They had named this turquoise **Zebra** (curiously pronounced _zay-brah_) after the earth animal of the same name due to her unusually consistent zebra-like stripe pattern and unkempt hair.

Unimaginative? _Yes_.

Apt? Also _yes_.

Anywho.

Zebra was very active for an infant, displaying energy akin to a human child hopped up on soda. She just kept wriggling about in the nest with no rhyme or reason other than the sake of staying in motion.

Zebra's rounded gem was located on her forehead, just like Pearl's was.

* * *

The third oldest, another turquoise, was named **Tierie** (pronounced _tee-ere-re_).

No reason, really.

It just sort of came out of Lapis's mouth without much thought put into it.

Tierie's turquoise pattern was par for the course for her type, but her green coloration was of a more intense hue than Zebra, closer to a peridot's color more than anything, and her hair had this unusual effect where it was fanned out near the end.

She was the polar opposite of her sister Zebra. Tierie appeared more content to dig into the blankets and quietly rest while her siblings moved about.

Tierie's gem was located above her left shoulder, which she rested her head on like a pillow.

* * *

The fourth oldest of the litter was a peridot whom they had named **Merida**.

Merida had this unique green blue gradient from top to bottom and a standard triangular hairstyle shaped like Peridot's own.

Of note, for a peridot newborn she was well mannered when compared to the rest of her peridot siblings, preferring to express her distress by fidgeting and squirming more than crying.

She was the quietest of the bunch and that was saying something.

Merida's triangular gem was located on the back of her head, where the hair had been neatly parted to reveal it.

* * *

The fifth oldest was a turquoise named **Gwyndolin**.

This name was actually suggested by Steven.

It was a pretty name for a pretty turquoise.

Indeed, Gwyndolin was certainly the neatest of the bunch. When she had first emerged almost instinctively she started to wipe away the goop from her face and body despite technically being blind.

Her patterns were far apart, giving her a cleaner appearance in comparison to her turquoise sisters.

Gwyndolin's gem was located on the back of her neck.

* * *

The sixth oldest was a patterned lapis lazuli with short wavy hair named **Cea** (pronounced _see-ah_).

It was a clever misspelling and mispronunciation of the word sea, or at least clever to Peridot.

Cea was named for her limited display of hydrokinesis that all Lapis Lazuli possessed.

Small almost imperceptible droplets of water danced and flickered around her person like twinkling stars. They constantly dispersed into a thin mist and reformed again as a result of her inability to properly control her powers.

Cea's gem was located on the right side of her cheek where she kept patting at it like a glorified pimple.

* * *

The seventh oldest was another Lapis Lazuli named **Vivvie**.

Vivvie had short hair styled in a plain bob cut and a vibrant blue coloration like her turquoise siblings.

She, like Cea, was currently exhibiting a weak display of hydrokinesis. She had formed useless wings from her sister's mist that beat lethargically to some unheard rhythm.

So young, yet Vivvie already displays an unconscious aspiration for flight.

If she had her way she'd be flapping about like a drunk pigeon in a rainstorm.

Vivvie's gem was located on the small of her back.

* * *

The eighth oldest gem was a bluish peridot with square hair named **Wanda**.

Wanda's name perhaps loosely alluded to her strange robotic patterns of movement that made her look suspiciously similar to a _windup toy_.

Her limbs moved in a strict orderly fashion rather than the free, loose arcs of her squirming siblings.

That being said her unique motor quirks did nothing to damper her cries. If anything, it only reinforced the image of said toy.

Wanda's gem was located on her chest.

* * *

The ninth oldest gem was a lapis lazuli with dark green hair named **Tyra**.

Tyra was eager for a newborn.

Fresh out of her geode with limbs that could barely function and already she seems to want to move about on her own and start exploring the world.

By the time she had been named she'd attempted to escape the blanket nest three times already, quitting each time when a wayward breeze ran a chill up her body causing her to flop back in with the combined warmth of her siblings.

Tyra's gem was located on the back her left nub of a hand.

* * *

The rest of the Gemlings were peridots.

The tenth oldest was named **Ally **(pronounced _ah-lee_).

She had a slight bluish coloration with hair that was shaped vaguely like an octagon, though it could easily be mistaken for a circle given its rounded corners.

Ally was feisty for a crying peridot, audacious too.

Even as the rest of her siblings wriggled around her she kicked and shoved and wiggled to the best of her abilities to make space for herself in a misguided show of dominance.

Again, like with Tyra, she stopped when she realised her efforts only left her cold.

Ally's gem was located on the side of her right bicep.

* * *

The eleventh oldest was named **Ferra**.

Ferra had hybrid features from both a lapis lazuli and turquoise, with a slight bluish green coloration and webbed patterns throughout her body.

Ferra was, well, unimpressive outside of her unique aesthetics, which was completely fine.

She'll have plenty of time to manifest personality quirks and develop talents as she gets older. Until then she stuck to Tierie like a parasite, latching onto her side for dear life with spindly fingers as she sobbed into her hair.

Ferra's gem was located on her belly.

* * *

And last but certainly not least was the runt of the litter.

The youngest, smallest and weakest of her eleven siblings and of the five peridots.

She was named **Casteen**.

Casteen was a garden variety peridot and was even smaller than the average runt of her type if it could be believed.

Frail didn't even begin to describe her.

Squished in between her older siblings with little regard for her well being she just flail about meekly while wailing at the top of her lungs, which came out as that same high pitched dog toy squeal from when she was trapped in her geode.

If she wasn't so cute for her size that squeak of hers could come off as grating.

Casteen's gem was located in the palm of the right nub of a hand.

* * *

And there they were.

Twelve little Gemlings.

Kara, Zebra, Tierie, Merida, Gwyndolin, Cea, Vivvie, Wanda, Tyra, Ally, Ferra, and Casteen.

Goodness, that was a lot to take in.

Let's take a breather for a spell, shall we? Just to give you time to absorb all that information I have given you.

I know what you're probably thinking; this is all just exposition, and you're right.

A good story is more _show_ and less _tell_ but I assure you this is all done for a good reason.

It's the buildup. Like the rising crescendo of an orchestral symphony and its many, many wonderful pieces.

You see, naming twelve little Gemlings couldn't have been easy but Lapis and Peridot managed to pull it off with relative ease and maybe with a bit of help from their good friend Steven.

And now that the Gemlings all have names, it'll be easier to keep track of them.

Are you feeling better now?

More relaxed perhaps?

It's good to take breaks every now and they, you know. Especially when you consume information.

I promise the story is going to get a lot better from here on out.

I would be a terrible Narrator if I'd bored you to death now wouldn't I?

Now, take a deep breathe and settle in.

I'll get on with the story.

* * *

Steven clutched at his sore hand, rubbing at it to alleviate the stinging pain that had been inflicted on him by Peridot slapping it away. She glared at the boy to which he responded with a sheepish grin plastered on his mushy mug.

"Steven, no," Peridot grumbled, huddling near her children as maternal instincts long hidden in her genetic code welled up to the surface.

"Aw, come on, Peridot. I just wanna hold one," replied Steven, an apologetic look gracing his visage. "The Gemlings are so cute, I just wanna hug 'em."

"I'm sorry, Steven, but my Gemlings are still vulnerable and I can't risk them contracting some horrible sickness because they were exposed to a foreign contaminant that you yourself could be unknowingly carrying," Peridot reasoned as Lapis sidled beside her.

"I know you mean well Steven and that you would never harm them, but for the time being it'd probably be best to err on the side of caution," said Lapis.

"Peridot and Lapis are right, Steven," said Pearl, soothing his injured hand. "You can't just go around hugging everything you think is cute like you did those pigeons, especially to these Gemlings. We know absolutely nothing about them. For all we know your human germs, dead skin cells and other biological what have you could be potentially harmful to the Gemlings."

"But I thought Gems didn't get sick? You know, being made of light and all that confusing stuff."

"_Gems_ don't get sick, Steven. Gems are not _Gemlings_. The difference is minor but significant," Garnet joined in on the conversation, casually fixing her shades as she continued. "Gemlings to my knowledge lack all basic physiological functions fully formed kindergarten Gems possess that grant us our prodigious durability. They need to grow a bit more before they can be exposed to certain stimuli."

"Then, isn't there some help guide or infographic for Gemlings we can look at?" Connie inquired. "Surely the Gems have written something down."

"Negative. All information regarding Gemlings in the Homeworld master archives are either corrupted, lost or don't contain the information needed," Peridot added sullenly. "Lapis and I have been lucky but genetically hardwired instinct can only go so far. At best we are going to have to, as you humans say,_ play it by the ear_."

"Dang, I'm sorry to hear that, Peri," said Amethyst. "Wish we could do more to help."

"Hmm. Maybe we can..." Steven brought a hand to his chin and poised himself in a stock manner of deep concentration. "Garnet," he called, "maybe you can use your future vision to help them out? If you peer into the future maybe it can give us a clue on what they should do."

"It's worth a shot," Garnet replied and went quiet for a few minutes.

It started as it usually did whenever Garnet focused her future vision, with her composure cool and collected as ever as she stood stock still like a statue. But as the seconds drew themselves out she became less and less sure of herself.

Then it happened.

She _frowned_.

The passive twitch of her lips by a single micron was enough to unsettle her peers greatly. When she began sputtering incoherent nonsense in the second person, a sign that either Ruby or Sapphire or both were deeply disturbed in some way, that was enough to make Pearl step in to console Garnet and her sudden bout of agitation.

"...Garnet? Are you okay?" Pearl called out concernedly, only to reel back in astonishment when Garnet's hardlight form began destabilizing in short glitchy bursts. This ultimately culminated in a bright glow of white light that rapidly subsumed her very being as Ruby and Sapphire were unceremoniously flung apart from one another like a pair of magnets that had been forced too closely together on the same poles.

When she finally made sense of the situation Ruby clambered back onto her feet as fast as her diminutive size would allow and rushed over to Sapphire, clasping their hands together all the while she continued uttering nonsense.

"Sapphy, what's wrong?!" Ruby cried.

"No! I-Wait! Don't, don't, don't, don't. Please, jus- But. Look out! Stop!"

Nothing that came out of Sapphire's mouth made a lick of sense. What's worse, she was so preoccupied with whatever it was that had disturbed her so greatly, Pearl had surmised that perhaps it was the various visions of the future that were tormenting her, she didn't even register the looks sheer bewilderment on everyone's faces.

And then, as quickly as her bout of insanity began, she became still. So still in fact that no one dared to make a move in fear that she would shatter like a pane of galss if they did so.

She was eerily silent with a hollow smile that betrayed her earlier outburst.

"...Lapis," she addressed.

Lapis blinked, trading a sideways glance with Peridot. "Y-yes, Sapphire?" she replied hesitantly.

"Please move your Gemlings two feet to the left." Sapphire calmly instructed.

Lapis did as instructed and with everyone's help they carefully moved the Gemling's cradle two feet to the left.

Just as they did so, the startling sound of creaking metal and crackling wood drew everyone's attention to a specific section of the Barn's ceiling. Rotted planks of wood and rusted metal gave way with little resistance as a solid chunk broke apart, falling to the floor with a loud crash and scattering splinters of wood and iron bits all around.

Steven instinctively formed his bubble shield, protecting them from the debris. When the dust has finally settled he dispersed his powers and turned to address his friends. A varying mix of emotions were present on all their faces ranging from utter bafflement that a part of the ceiling had fallen onto the very spot where the Gemlings were comfortably nesting mere seconds ago for no real reason at all, to sweet relief that they were unharmed.

Sapphire all the while still had that creepy smile plastered on her face.

"The heck was that about?" Amethyst asked, kicking away a piece of wood.

"How curious. It looks like a part of the ceiling fell down," Peridot stated, closely examining the bits of rusty metal. "Hmm, strange. The structural integrity of the barn's ceiling should've been able to hold itself for a few more sun rotations. I find it highly suspect that it broke so suddenly, atop the gemlings no less. That is... disconcerting."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks for the recap captain obvious," Amethyst remarked sarcastically. "At least they're safe."

"I still can't believe that just happened," said Lapis, cradling onto her Gemlings tightly. Knowing that her children came so close to being harmed sent spikes of terror rippling across her body, enforcing the protective maternal instinct she possessed even further. She had every reason to thank Sapphire for preventing her children from being hurt. "Thank you, Sapphire. Your premonitions saved my children."

"Oh, I'm glad that they're s-s-safe," Sapphire replied nonchalantly with a wave of her hand, albeit ending with a bizarre stutter, when she suddenly seized up and went ramrod straight. She began repeating the phrase over and over again like a mantra, stuttering at odd intervals.

"I'm g-glad that they're-they're safe."

"I-I'm glad tha-that they're safe."

"I'm g-g-glad that they're s-safe."

It quickly devolved into a maddening chant of a single word: _safe_.

"_Safe. Safe. S-s-safe. Safe. Safe. S-safe. Safe._"

And so forth.

At that point all the excitement had reached its tipping point. In between the rapid succession of hatching, naming and subsequent near death of the Gemlings everyone had decided it'd be best to call it a day and started cleaning up. Lapis however maintained a watchful eye on the Gemlings, never letting them out of her sight for even a millisecond. Their innocent mewlings and tired squeaks of contentment did wonders for her rattled nerves.

Ruby meanwhile tended to Sapphire, who had lapsed into a cheerful stupor seemingly unaware of the hustle and bustle around the barn. Mentally, she wasn't all there. It was indeterminate how bad her condition was. Hopefully she'll be better by the time they got back to the temple. For now she enjoyed being with Ruby in blissful ignorance.

By the time everything was put away and the guests had gone home the sky had grown dark as dusk settled upon the land.

But as the sun crept below the horizon, a bad moon rose to take its place...

* * *

Well, that was a close one, wasn't it?

I wasn't lying when I said that Gemlings were implausibly unlucky.

How often is it that innocent newborns barely an hour into their lives are immediately subjected to some cruel universal conspiracy bent on making them suffer?

If I were a betting man, I'd wager not many.

For the time being however our dear friends Lapis and Peridot can breathe easy knowing that the threat to their Gemling's lives had been taken care of, no doubt thanks to Sapphire's premonitions.

But as you are fully aware, Sapphire is not acting like herself.

Whatever she saw in the labyrinthine paths of the future can't have been good, not when the tumultuous experience left her sputtering nonsense like a schizophrenic mental patient.

The fate of the first Gemling is coming up next.

How will it perish?

Perhaps it's fate will be a quick one. Poor thing probably won't even see it coming.

Maybe it's fate will be a loud one. It can cry for mommy and mommy all it wants, no one will listen.

There's always the possibility of it being on the wrong end of fire. After all, children have to learn that fire is _hot _somehow.

Whatever terrible demise, tune in and find out.

I am the Narrator, your humble guide to this tragic comedy, and I thank you for listening.

In the meantime, I'll work on my impressions.

I'm not afraid to admit it, my Pearl voice is positively _horrendous_.


	3. ECNREVUONDELIG

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gemling's demise is in the chapter title. Can you unscramble it? If not the answer will be revealed in the story.

Hello again, friend.

I can call you friend, right?

Anywho, it's good to see you again.

I see you're eager for more and I can respect that.

Once again I am the Narrator, your humble guide to this tragic comedy, and when I'd last spoken our dear friends Lapis and Peridot had gotten to name their Gemlings.

Kara, Zebra, Tierie, Merida, Gwyndolin, Cea, Vivvie, Wanda, Tyra, Ally, Ferra and Casteen.

Twelve beautiful names for twelve beautiful little Gemlings ready to take on the world.

Or, at least that's supposed to be the idea.

It's a parent's goal and responsibility to see their children grow up healthy, strong and independent, but unbeknownst to the two Gems the universe at large has already set into motion a string of events set on snuffing out eleven of their innocent Gemlings like a candle flame caught in the midst of a raging typhoon.

The collapsed ceiling was only the beginning. A mere warning of things to come.

One of the Gemlings will perish soon. Whatever awaits the poor thing will either come in blunt as a baseball bat or as meticulously complex as a pocket watch.

We can only hope that it'll be particularly gruesome, sprinkled in with some dramatic irony and a dash of black comedy for good measure.

It makes things so much more fun.

But before we get down to the nitty gritty, a bit more background may prove useful.

And bear with me, there will be a lot of comparisons to be made.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since the Gemlings' close encounter with faulty architecture. A lot has happened since then.

Word of the Gemlings had spread throughout Beach City and Homeworld as well thanks to Steven's loose lips. Reactions were varied amongst the respective population of the two. Most of Beach City's residence actually congratulated Lapis and Peridot on their children, while Homeworlders found the news to be uproarious.

The idea of two Gems procreating had sent shockwaves throughout the entire planet, questions were being asked that no one had answers to.

Thankfully the Diamonds had managed to isolate the news, keeping it from spreading to the colonies and beyond their own solar system. But it'll only be a matter of time before things get out of hand and Homeworld gets roped into the shenanigans as well.

Sapphire had, thankfully, gotten better during that time and was able to recover from the experience enough to reform Garnet with Ruby being said it was clear that Garnet didn't want to divulge what she had seen in the future regarding the Gemlings. She had chosen to stay silent on the matter, refusing to budge from her position even when asked by Steven.

But when Peridot and Lapis pressed for information, all she had to say on the matter was, "_don't get too attached_."

To say that the message was disconcerting would be an understatement.

Regardless, the two had decided to take it with a grain of salt. Garnet was the literal and metaphorical rock of the Crystal Gems, her wisdom had proven true time and time again. When something has her this troubled it's best to listen to whatever she had to say, cryptic as it may be.

As for the Gemlings, they've been quite the handful.

To note, as Lapis and Peridot have come to learn through trial and error, Gemlings were much more biological in nature than had originally been speculated. So much so that they could easily be mistaken as flesh and blood babies to the wayward observer.

Their bodies weren't made out of hardlight, for starters. They had a lot more in common with tardigrades than anything, being resilient rudimentary creatures comprised only of the barest minimum of working parts required to function.

While the Gemling's gem may be the core of their entire being, at this stage of life it was fragile and far too weak to sustain them, let alone project a durable hardlight form.

To compensate for this the body of an immature Gemling was a thin inorganic membrane composed of a synthetic material similar to that of plastic. It was mildly resilient, malleable, self healing and filled with the same mysterious goop that they'd sat in whilists incubating in their geodes. In this case the goop shall be referred to as ichor from this point forward.

Peridot had hypothesized that the Gemling's gem is constantly sending out ephemeral electrical signals that somehow interact with the ichor in the body, causing it to expand and contract much like a muscle would, allowing them to move and interact with their surroundings.

They were, in essence, _sentient water balloons_ powered and controlled by the Gem.

At least for their first half century.

There wasn't any available evidence pointing to the contrary, yet, but it could be safely assumed that a Gemling will eventually outgrow their immature state and emerge anew with a durable hardlight form made to their personal specifications.

The image of a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly comes to mind.

Interesting enough Gemlings also had _teeth_ but that'll be further expanded upon later in the story.

To add to the already curious physiology of infant Gemlings, they also possessed a great deal of daily needs that had to be met in order for them to survive and grow not unlike an organic newborn would during the crucial stages of their early life.

To wit, they needed to be _fed_.

Several times a day, in fact.

This came as a shock to everyone, Pearl especially, when one of the Gemlings was caught gnawing on the blanket as if it were a shred of lettuce. It hungered for something, but nobody knew what exactly.

It was only after spending a majority of the day exhausting the five major food groups, and concluding that they couldn't chew solid foods, that they eventually managed to determine what a growing Gemling was supposed to eat; _carbon_, _silicate_ and _polymers_.

No one knew why Amethyst thought it would be a good idea to feed the Gemlings _caulk_ of all things but as it turns out her seemingly asinine suggestion had actual merit to it. The Gemling she'd offered it to, Zebra, took to the mushy substance with voracious enthusiasm, greedily suckling the caulk like a baby would with a bottle of formula.

After that the Crystal Gems and friends hopped into Greg's van for a trip to the hardware store to see what else the Gemlings could eat.

To date, the things that newborn Gemlings are capable of eating included but was not limited to:

\- **Caulk**

\- **Charcoal powder** (if you can't afford to make it from scratch store bought is fine)

\- Silt (can be substituted with regular beach sand but expect eventual discomfort in the Gemling)

\- **Epoxy** (preferably mixed with the curative for better results)

\- **Polyurethane**

\- **Glue** (either white, wood, plastic, cyanoacrylate or rubber cement but not animal glue. It is possible to feed the Gemlings hot melt adhesive but only through alternative methods due to the harm it can cause if fed directly with a hot glue gun.)

\- **Paint** (acrylic, lacquer and enamel are fine but not oil paints. Oil paints gives them tummy troubles)

\- **Cement** (preferably when wet and mushy)

\- **Plaster** (same as with cement)

\- **Graphite powder**

(_It is recommended to soften the powders up with a bit of water, preferably mineral water if possible, for easier consumption._)

It would appear that by consuming these materials the Gemlings assimilate the chemical compound into their body, strengthening themselves and sating their hunger.

How long they needed to be fed and how often for was still a balancing act that Lapis and Peridot were still trying to figure out.

_Heat_ and _sleep_ were also required of them, among other things.

The Gemlings had yet to fully acclimate to their environment and needed to be kept warm at all times until their bodies properly adjust. Furthermore, the inadequate energy output of their Gem was insufficient to maintain their consciousness at all times and they would fall into a short coma periodically for about twelve hours to recharge before becoming active again.

Thankfully it was summer in Beach City so the ambient temperature wasn't a huge issue. Even the relatively cool nights in the countryside were easily remedied by the Gemlings' cozy blanket nest maintaining their body heat. For the most part, they slept and ate comfortably in their warm safety of their cradle.

Although, there was the issue of _defecation_ to discuss.

Oh, don't look so grossed out. It's not as bad as it sounds and I use the word as defined by the dictionary: _to be clear of dregs, impurities_.

After each feeding the Gemlings needed to be burped.

You see, there is only so much of a material's chemical compound that a Gemling could absorb at any given time, what they couldn't was usually burped back up as a densely compacted wad, which would either be discarded or recycled depending on the material they'd eaten.

Gemlings who couldn't keep their meal down would vomit in response. The resulting torrent of partially digested foodstuffs, if you could call it that, would spew from their mouths with all the intensity of a squirt gun. It was messy, disgusting and a pain to clean up. Something that Pearl can attest to seeing as she had to clean up after one of their messes. If she hated the concept of eating food before, she absolutely abhorred it now.

But even after taking all this information into consideration, how high maintenance Gemlings were, Lapis and Peridot weren't deterred into the slightest when it came to child rearing. If anything they found the experience to be highly enjoyable.

It had easily become routine in their lives and routine was something they took strange comfort in, either through personal appreciation or because of maternal instinct or a combination of the two.

Whatever the case, it was new, it was fascinating, but most importantly, it was their motherhood.

This was the life that they had chosen and they wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since the Gemlings' close encounter with faulty architecture. A lot has happened since then.

Unfortunately, two weeks wasn't enough time for the Gemlings' to undergo any noticeable changes.

They were still frail helpless things barely able to lift their own head, and if there were changes to their current physiology odds are they were all internal and lacked any real significance vital to their growth or survival.

For the most part, they'd remained the same size as they were when they first hatched, perhaps a hairsbreadth larger but the distinction is negligible.

The turquoises, largest of the litter, were around four inches in length (a little over ten centimeters for the metrically cultured), the lapis lazulis were roughly three and a half (just under nine centimeters), and the peridots sat squarely below three inches (seven and a half centimeters) with Casteen the runt sitting pitifully at a paltry two and a half inches (six and a half centimeters) in length.

Their eyes still remained closed and they had difficulty registering sound, something that Peridot tried to get around by yelling like she did with the ear of corn.

It didn't work.

They do however appear to rely on a crude sense of smell for detection, as evident by their constant sniffing. It was unclear how adept they were at telling apart one thing from another but they had at least recognized their mothers' scent and the scent of their siblings well enough to be calm around them. Anything else would have triggered their fight or flight responses, which they'd demonstrated when they were handled by Steven.

As mentioned previously Gemlings also had teeth. They were small blunted needle like things meant more for gripping than chewing. Fortunately they lack the bite strength required to draw blood, but Steven and Connie made it a habit to avoid having their fingers near a Gemling's mouth, lest they acquire a taste for human flesh.

In summary, the Gemlings couldn't do anything by themselves other than squirm and cry and were still heavily dependent on their mothers for survival. At least for the time being.

Speaking of.

Lapis has just finished swaddling Casteen and gently set her beside her siblings in the cradle. The tiny runt struggled at first in her burrito pouch, as Steven had so elegantly put it, but eventually settled down as her gem began powering down to recharge. She thrashed one final time before letting out a long squeak of a yawn and falling inactive alongside the rest of her siblings quiet as a church mouse.

Well, most of them at least.

Zebra was still being fed, or at least Peridot was trying to feed her.

The little turquoise had been fussy about eating all day, which was strange considering how quickly she had taken to the practice when compared to the rest of her siblings who already had their fill of watery carbon mush and liquid polymer. But today she hadn't eaten anything, not even caulk, her favorite meal.

This sudden aversion to eating made Peridot worried, uncertain as to whether or not Zebra's loss of appetite was a sign of something worse to come. They still knew so little about the Gemlings to properly diagnose the cause of the issue, she'd only hoped it wasn't life threatening.

Still, she tried her best to get her to eat, going so far as to callously prod the caulk gun directly into the Gemling's mouth to garner some interest to feed. Zebra refused each time, lazily nudging her heavy head away with each misguided attempt to force feed her. Eventually Peridot got the message and gently set the little turquoise down, watching with evident dismay as Lapis began swaddling her.

"I don't understand. What's wrong with her?" Peridot asked, setting the caulk gun on the nightstand beside the cradle. "She loves this stuff, couldn't get enough of it the first time Amethyst gave her some. Now she won't even face in its general direction. Are we doing something wrong?" she turned to Lapis.

"You tell me, you're the mom," Lapis quipped, tucking Zebra into the blanket nest just as the little one started to doze off.

"So are you," Peridot rebutted.

"Yes, but I'm not nearly as scientifically inclined as you are," Lapis smirked, folding her arms.

"Flatterer," Peridot grumbled. "I can only assume this is some Gemling thing, by which I know absolutely nothing about. If only the archives weren't corrupted or full of useless information. Then we could figure this out in a snap."

"Isn't that why you're making your own compendium?" Lapis inquired. "Greg had given you all his old baby books to cross reference and everything."

"Yes, but that's beside the point." Peridot frowned. "Our children shouldn't be the basis for this study. It feels wrong." She paused, creasing her brow in deep thought. "At one point in time this information existed, it had been recorded. I know this for a fact. Gemlings were once standard in Gem lives pre-era. What changed? Why is there no reliable information on them?"

"It can't be negligence. The Diamonds never would've stood for it. They demanded perfection in every facet of our lives, at least until Steven stepped in. It can't be natural decay. Gemtech data storage could persist until the heat death of the universe and beyond. We specifically made it that way in the event something cataclysmic were to ever befall Homeworld. So why isn't the info available? I. Just. Don't. Get. It."

Peridot huffed, her frustrations had made her green coloration turn a shade darker. As she sulked Lapis gently wrapped her arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a comforting embrace.

"What's there to get?" said Lapis. "As much as it would help the fact of the matter is that we've got to do a lot of this on the fly, with or without a guide. Greg and the Crystal Gems have said that raising a child is all about being spontaneous. You never know what's going to happen and you always have to stay alert. That's just how it is. But if you fuss over all of it it's not going to be good for either of us."

"The logic is... sound. Perhaps I'm overthinking things," replied Peridot, slacking her shoulders.

"We could use a break to better prepare ourselves. I mean, we've been doing this nonstop for two weeks," Lapis suggested.

"Hmm... What do you have in mind?" Peridot inquired with a raise of her brow.

"Well, I hear there's a Camp Pining Hearts marathon going on today," Lapis grinned knowing how much Peridot loved the television series to death. "They're airing all the series in sequential order." Peridot gasped dramatically at the mention, her eyes morphing into stars.

"You mean they're going to air Camp Pining Hearts, Camp Pining Hearts: The Next Generation, Camp Pining Hearts: Deep Space Nine and Camp Pining Hearts: Voyager all at once?!"

"And Camp Pining Hearts: Enterprise too, if you like that one," Lapis lazily shrugged.

"To the television!" Peridot wasted no time in bolting up into the second floor of the barn in a green blur and throwing herself upon the couch, settling in like a hermit crab receding into its shell. "Come on, Lapis! The show isn't gonna watch itself!"

"Coming!" Lapis called out. She turned to move but stopped short of an inch. Her gaze shifted towards the Gemlings in the nest. She briefly observed them, making sure that they were asleep.

They were all inactive, completely motionless like a bundle of plushies tucked within their comfy burrito pouches in neat rows lined by Gem type. Their rows almost resembled a pyramid, with the turquoises on top, the lapis lazulis in the center, and the peridots at the bottom.

Smiling, Lapis quickly planted a small kiss on their foreheads before retreating to the second floor where she accompanied Peridot and enjoyed their much needed break together.

However, partway through their marathon one naughty turquoise woke earlier from its standard twelve hour charging period and began to muck about with mischievous intent...

* * *

Zebra began stirring in her slumber.

Her recharging period had ended earlier than her siblings, she woke with a quiet yawn as she began moving again. Or at least she'd tried to. Being tightly swaddled left her limbs immobile but she persisted nonetheless.

That boundless energy she possessed worked in her favor and she struggled tirelessly until she had finally managed to undo her bindings. Wriggling out from her blanket pouch she rolled over onto her belly and began sniffing away at the air to reorient herself with her surroundings.

"Pii, pii..." she squeaked, rolling her head around to better detect scents. "Pii, pii, pii..."

According to the scents in the air she was still in the blanket nest with her eleven other siblings. Her mothers were nowhere to be sniffed but Zebra was cognitive enough to remain calm given the situation. Or rather her immediate distress at being unable to detect her mothers was overridden by another dilemma; she was _hungry_.

She had not fed since yesterday due to an inconsistent gestation all early stage Gemlings go through to prepare them for their next stage of development that had the side effect of temporary loss of appetite. The issue that Peridot worried over was ultimately a nonissue, not that she knew.

Regardless, Zebra was guided by an overwhelming compulsion to feed, and if her mothers weren't around to do it, she'll just have to do it herself.

Fortunately for her she could make out the harsh cloying chemical scent of vinegar emanating from the caulk gun by the nightstand. Her favorite meal was close, less than a feet away. All she had to do was get to it, somehow.

With shaky movement Zebra twitched her tiny limbs into motion and attempted to move towards the caulk gun.

The first ten minutes of her endeavors were, well, pathetic to say the least. All she did was squirm in place with no real sense of direction that accomplished nothing other than make her look utterly helpless. It would be another ten minutes before Zebra finally managed to figure out her limited spatial awareness and motor functions. By the time she'd learn how to use her spindly digits to her advantage forty five minutes had already passed.

It started off slow at first, with Zebra gripping tightly onto the blanket with one hand, nudging her heavy head to accommodate with the change in direction. She pulled with all her might tugging herself forward a few centimeters and giving her enough room to throw her other hand forward. She repeated the process as many times as needed for her to reach her goal, and before anyone else knew it, she had gotten a solid grasp on crawling.

Zebra diligently trudged her way passed her inactive siblings until she reached the cloth lined walls of the cradle where she began to climb with prodigious skill. Although granted this innate ability to climb may have something to do with her Turquoise genetic memory, what with their primary role being salvagers and whatnot, it was still impressive to behold if Peridot and Lapis weren't so engrossed with their stories.

She displayed phenomenal grip strength as she scaled the crib, latching on with a vice grip and steadily hauling herself upwards as her head flopped to and fro like a bobblehead with each inch she climbed, guided by the alluring scent of caulk.

Before long she reached the edge of the crib where she initially struggled to haul herself over. After a bit of fidgeting and infant determination she plopped over onto her side on the nightstand where her olfactory senses were rewarded with the overbearing scent of vinegar mere inches from her waiting mouth.

Guided by the odious stench the caulk exuded Zebra wriggled over to the nozzle, continually sniffing the air as she attempted to latch her eager jaw over the tip. When she finally claimed her prize she clamped her mouth down upon the nozzle, maneuvering around the tube to wrap herself over it to better feed before suckling with fervor.

And so she ate, and ate, and _ate_ like a dying pig on the brink of finality, and she continued to eat only for the sake of eating rather than to satisfy hunger because while her infantile alien mind could process the biological need for it she'd yet to grasp the concept of being full.

Greedily she consumed the caulk, eating beyond the limits that her body would permit. Even as the material was being absorbed into her body mixing with the ichor that composed a majority of her frail form, each additional drop of caulk she continued to gorge herself on caused her to bloat, distending her from the size of an average can of soda upwards to that of a grapefruit.

By the time the tube emptied she had become so swollen, so full of delectable synthetic polymer that she could barely move. She rolled onto her back beside the tube of caulk, head and limbs halfway sunken into her own girth, relishing in the gluttonous mistake she had brought upon herself.

And that mistake only got worse from there.

Zebra's body began rumbling violently. Strange noises akin to boiling water emanated from her center, culminating in a muffled pained mewl from her lips.

"Piiiiii..."

Her body could not properly process all the caulk she had eaten. It reacted negatively to her rudimentary systems and when something couldn't be processed the only solution would be to expel it from the body.

And expel it she did.

Rolling her head around her bloated folds she freed her mouth and began to vomit uncontrollably into the air, coughing, hacking and sputtering the whole way through as pints of bluish white goop sailed from out of her maw in spurts and down onto her sleeping siblings below, splattering them with disgusting half digested foulness that reeked of a pungent chemical stink.

"Piiiiiii!"

The resulting fountain lasted for several seconds accompanied by violent spasms that sent waves of shock rolling throughout her body. By the time almost everything that Zebra couldn't digest had been forcefully ejected from her body she had shrunk back down to her original size, twitching wildly as the entire ordeal had been physically traumatic for her.

"Piiii! Pii, pii!"

"Reee! Reeee!"

"Pii, pii, pii! Pii, pii, pii!"

From within the messy goop soaked confines of the cradle came the exasperated cries of several Gemlings. A healthy helping of Zebra's former lunch had woken them prematurely and they began to cry for their mothers. The cacophony of distressed peeps, squeaks and fearful chirps caught the attention of their mothers, who immediately came to their aid.

But as they descended from the upper floors they came across the horrid scene of Zebra wallowing on the nightstand, twitching, squealing, _choking_.

The wad of compacted undigested material was trapped in her throat. Not being burped after vomiting had left her in a precarious state that was detrimental to her overall health, which Peridot and Lapis will soon learn to have a fatal effect on the infant turquoise.

"What happened?!" Lapis cried. "The Gemlings weren't supposed to be awake for another hour!" She scanned the scene, repulsed by the mess laid out before her. But it was the disturbing sight of Zebra struggling on the nightstand for dear life that left her in a state of panic. "How did she get out of her burrito pouch? How did she get onto the nightstand!"

"Did she eat all the caulk?!" Peridot spoke in disbelief, the near weightless tube of caulk gripped in her hands. "This was a fresh tube and she ate all of it!"

"Wait, what's happening to her?" Lapis pointed to Zebra, who began to suddenly inflate like a balloon.

"PiiiiiiI! Pii, pii! Piiiiiii! Piiiiiiii!"

Each wheezy squeal, each horror filled cry, each fruitless attempt to hack up the solid wad lodged in her caused her to grow in size beyond that of when she had gorged herself sick. Lapis and Peridot gawked at the sight with an ironic sense of expanding horror as Zebra doubled in size, then tripled to the size of a basketball, then began to float in the air helplessly, wiggling her useless limbs about as if they would do anything to help in the matter.

"Pii! PiiiiI!" She continued to caterwaul, a desperate plea for her mother's help.

"Quick, do something!" Lapis yelled worriedly.

"Do what?!" Peridot screeched, frantically clutching at her hair. "I've never seen anything like this before!"

"She ate, right? Then burp her!" Lapis determined.

"O-okay, that sounds logical," Peridot swallowed thickly, admittedly unsure of her spouse's suggestion but there was nothing else she could think of to do.

Hesitantly she reached out to Zebra, doing her best to ignore the cries of her eleven other children. Slowly, _carefully_, she wrapped her arms around the flailing Gemling, bringing her into her embrace where she quickly began rocking up and down, patting Zebra's stretched out back in spastic bursts of uneven rhythm as Lapis looked on in nervous anticipation.

"Pii! Pii! Piiiii!"

"I-I think it's working," Peridot stuttered, a tinge of hope laced in her shaky voice.

"Y-yeah, I t-think so too. Just k-keep it up and-" Lapis's voice was caught in her throat when Zebra's wailing reached a fever pitch, something that caused Peridot to stop patting her.

Her cries had become so loud and high pitch that it had begun to drown out her sibling's own. It was ear rending, like a disturbing cross between a boiling tea kettle and leaking gas. Then she began to spasm again, almost as though she was fighting to be released from Peridot's hold.

She thrashed and spasmed and flailed and convulsed like a Gem possessed, screaming the whole way through, her body rippling and warping into unnatural oblong shapes until finally, after suffering through so much agony, the pressure of it all came to a head, forcing her still developing eyes open to reveal beady terror filled black orbs that got one first and last look at her mother, siblings, and the outside world before ultimately-

***KER-SPLAT!***

It sounded like a gunshot.

Zebra exploded into a burst of bluish green ichor and rubbery viscera, splattering herself all over her mothers, her siblings, and the floor in revolting gout of gluttonous karma.

All that remained of Zebra were the glittering flecks of her destroyed gem, loose slips of her skin and the tiny insignificant wad of compressed caulk that had done her in.

The whole debacle had left Peridot and Lapis near catatonic. The shock of seeing their child pop right before their eyes like a blister left them in stunned silence. They couldn't move, they couldn't register the sound of the other Gemlings' cries, they couldn't do anything but stare blankly into space as their minds struggled to cope with the lost.

It'll be a while before they ever truly recover.

But that's only after they've suffered ten more casualties...

* * *

Well, what did you think?

Didn't expect the first Gemling to die by **overindulgence** now, did you?

Poor, poor Zebra.

Driven by instinctive hunger she was ultimately the instigator of her own demise.

Truth be told the blame is not entirely on her. After all, she was just an infant who didn't know any better, and most likely wouldn't for years had she actually managed to survive that long.

But the blame isn't on Lapis or Peridot either.

How could they have known?

It was tragic, yes. But when you're going into parenting blind, with no information whatsoever on how to rear your own children, it was bound to happen at some point.

If you want to blame anything blame fate, blame dumb luck, blame network television.

Hell, blame _**me**_.

I'm the one telling this story, after all. And as the Narrator I can tell you this is merely just the start.

Believe me when I say that this death is far from the worst, or even the least cruel.

We've still got ten more precious little Gemlings whose stories need to be told, and whose fate must be uncovered for you, the _audience_.

Now, I can't tell if you're excited for the next one but for me I'm absolutely filled to the brim with excitement.

But alas, that excitement is draining.

Perhaps another break is in order to better prepare ourselves for the next chapter of this story.

I am the Narrator, your humble guide to this tragic comedy, and I thank you for listening.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the mess that Zebra made all over her siblings with her vomit and mushy remains, don't worry.

_**They're not picky eaters**_.


	4. MSUOSOP

Hello again, friend.

Welcome back.

It seems that the first incident of the story has left you wanting more, and as your humble Narrator I am more than happy to oblige such an appetite for the macabre, the humorous and the irresistibly adorable.

Some people really like that last one, I'm told.

When I had last spoken it had been about early Gemling physiological quirks and the demise of the second oldest Gemling of the litter, Zebra.

Zebra the infant turquoise.

Energetic Zebra.

Sweet, innocent Zebra.

Fat, _gluttonous_ Zebra who was too greedy for her own good.

After undergoing a period of inconsistent gestation she'd gone through the day with a lack of appetite.

Having woken earlier than her sisters she proceeded to make up for lost time and attempted to feed herself without parental supervision.

With her infantile mind unable to grasp the concept of being full she'd gorged caulk to the point of vomiting and the subsequent ichor backup thereafter from failing to be burped in time culminated in her untimely demise via lethal inflation.

An agonizing way to die, she suffered every second up to that dramatic squall of gore where she got her first and final glimpse of the world beyond eyes squeezed shut before painting the walls and her peers with her insides.

To say that Lapis and Peridot were emotionally devastated from this tragic loss would be the understatement of the millenia.

Perhaps things could've been different hadn't she woken up so early.

Perhaps she could've survived and lived a full life.

Perhaps she would've just been another casualty down the line.

Whatever the case, we'll never know until I tell it.

But that would be for another time when I'm feeling more... forgiving about the Gemlings' circumstances.

For now, a short poem for the dearly departed.

* * *

**Zebra the Glutton**

Young little turquoise, gone too soon.

Ate too much and swelled like a balloon.

She hooted and hollered but to no avail.

Popped like a pimple, so ends her tale.

Tearfully, did her parents weep.

Greedily, did her siblings' eat.

One of twelve gone, eleven remain.

More unfortunate victims of fate's disdain.

All that poor Zebra wanted was to eat.

And a tragic end she did meet.

* * *

\- Here lies Zebra -

The first of the litter to perish

Cause of death: Choked on a wad of processed caulk causing her expand until she exploded.

Time lasted: **two weeks**

* * *

News of Zebra's passing came slow.

For the first few days Lapis and Peridot kept it to themselves, silently mourning the loss of one of their children and struggling to cope with the grim reality of their situation. It wasn't until Amethyst decided to drop by out of the blue for a surprise visit that the cat was finally out of the bag.

The Crystal Gems were quick to console them, doing everything they could think of to comfort the grief stricken parents.

A small dignified burial was held for Zebra according to human customs who was laid to rest within the fields of the farm with whatever lingering remains they could scrape off the barn walls (since the rest had already been devoured by her oblivious siblings).

Greg, Steven and Connie were justifiably perturbed at the notion of attending what is essentially an infant's funeral but were nonetheless supportive the whole way through.

But among those who mourned for the loss, Garnet was eerily quiet for the duration of the procession.

This didn't go unnoticed by Lapis and she was quick to point fingers at the fusion. In a fit of barely repressed rage and overwhelming sorrow she accused Garnet of knowing what would happen and failing to do anything about it. Harsh as it was the accusation only made Lapis break down even further.

Deep down she knew Garnet was not at fault. Sapphire's earlier breakdown was enough to sell the fact that something wasn't quite right with the situation. This was only reinforced when Garnet removed her trademark shades, revealing stoic eyes wet with mournful tears.

Garnet wouldn't let this tragedy come to pass if she could help it. But that just wasn't possible. In her visions of the future the Gemlings were subject to the horrors of a bleak and uncaring universe. Unwitting playthings meant to entertain the sick whims of cruel mother nature, apathetic father time and slumbering elder gods.

There was nothing that could be done.

The rest of the evening passed by in relative silence.

* * *

About a week or so after Zebra's funerary processions a surprise in the form of the gargantuan Diamond interstellar space vessel/combiner mech super robot came and made planetfall off the coast of Beach City, it's colossal multifaceted being casting a long shadow over the petite town and its denizens.

Its abrupt arrival was further punctuated by the glamorous appearance of their radiance themselves, Yellow, Blue and White Diamond casually greeting Steven and his family and friends with all the subtlety of a boisterous wine aunt on her fifth margaritas at a neighborhood block party. Given Beach City's predilection for the weird and the alien, the townsfolk took the sudden arrival of the formerly despotic alien overlords with relative stride.

They'd come with the express intent of meeting the Gemlings and their parents.

Large powerful steps graced the fertile earth of Beach City's countryside as the Crystal Gems and their guests of honor approached the barn. While the atmosphere wasn't nearly as gloomy as it had been a week prior the tension in the air was still very much palpable, so much so you could cut it with a knife.

Lapis and Peridot themselves were in front of their home tending to the Gemlings as they took turns bathing them in the wash basin, their mood morose yet determinedly hopeful. Each little thing squirmed and wriggled about in the tiny tub like tadpoles in a pond, squealing and chirping alike to the wet sensation before being dried off by Peridot.

"Oh, my," Blue Diamond breathed.

"Ugh... They _did_ make them," Yellow said with obvious revulsion in her voice, casting a weary gaze at the Gemlings beneath her.

Peridot and Lapis stopped what they were doing once the Diamonds made their presence known. They picked up their children, making sure to dry off little Wanda first, and settled them back into the blanket nest where they began socializing amongst themselves.

Around the three and a half week mark the Gemlings have undergone the first milestone of their physical development after properly gestating (something that Peridot maintained a close eye on this time to avoid another, ahem, incident).

While they still lack the strength to properly hold their heads up, their limbs, once barely functional nubs unsuited for even the mildest of tasks, had developed well enough to the point where they could at least crawl or grab small objects with them. They did so with newfound enthusiasm, crawling up, over and under themselves in a frenzy of strange elastic motion, stamping over poor Casteen who was unfortunately caught underfoot in all the excitement.

With the exception of the latter, who was currently being treated as a palm sized doormat, their eyes have opened and they can register sight as they can with smell, albeit just as poorly. They view the world through a lens made of smoked glass Their eyes were black beady things; bulging, buglike and lustrous like a polished marble. They shone with a light of blissful ignorance that reflected their still developing minds.

They still could not hear however and didn't react when called by their names.

Physically they still resemble little jellybean hamster-like versions of their older kinsgem. It'll take some more time until they actually start looking like them proper and behaving with a level of childish sapience instead of acting like instinctive animals.

"Y-your radiance," Peridot greeted meekfully.

"Your radiance," Lapis parroted half heartedly.

"So," White Diamond began evenly, her eyes leveled on the blanket nest, "I guess the news rings true. There really are... _Gemlings_." She emphasized the word with a sharp intake of breath. It took every ounce of her willpower not to turn her nose in disgust. "This complicates things."

"No, it doesn't," Yellow remarked dismissively before hovering her hand over the nest, her palm aglow and crackling with raw energies. "Let's get this over with so we can leave. The odorous scent of constant organic decomposition on this planet is beginning to assault my senses."

The energies around her hand expanded until arcs of eldritch electricity danced between her fingertips, a pungent smell of ozone permeated throughout the air.

The Gemlings fight or flight response kicked in at the change in scent, and the luminous sparks of deadly lightning flickering before their beady eyes caused them to convulse in a panic. They tried escaping but even with their newfound mobility they fumbled against one another clumsily, knocking each other over and onto their backs where they squirmed futilely beneath the light of death.

"Tsk, loathsome little things," Yellow muttered.

"Wait!" Peridot protested, getting between the Gemlings and Yellow Diamond's wrath. "What do you think you're gonna do to my kids?!"

"Exterminate them like the vermin they are! Like you should've done when these repugnant things came into existence," Yellow replied coolly, "Now stand aside and let me go about my business."

Lapis joined Peridot and held her close, boring holes through Yellow Diamond with her furious glare. "If you think you can just waltz in here and zap my kids then you're sorely mistaken you overgrown giraffe!"

"Err... giraffe?" Yellow pulled back, bemused by the odd insult. She turned and whispered to Blue Diamond. "Is this some new era terminology I wasn't aware of?"

"I'm not sure," Blue commented. "Though Steven has mentioned the existence of a native Earth animal of the same name."

"Enough," White Diamond asserted her authority. Her voice, though gentle as it had always been, thrummed with a power that cause every Gem within earshot to go ramrod straight. "It would be in poor taste to execute a group of Gemlings without first giving an explanation as to why Yellow was going to disintegrate them. We owe that much to our subjects and to Steven."

"Phew, for a moment I thought things were about to get worse," Steven breathed, letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "So, why did Yellow almost fry the Gemlings. I don't think Lapis and Peridot could've handled more heartbreak after Zebra passed away."

"One's gone already?" Yellow raised a brow. "Tsk. Unsurprising."

"Yellow, please. Be considerate," Blue gently chided.

"Yeah, have some class will you? Pfft," said Amethyst dismissively.

"Tsk," Yellow harrumphed.

* * *

The following conversation will unfortunately be skipped over due to the fact that it is something that you, the audience, are already quite aware of and I feel that it would be redundant to repeat it all again.

Namely the Gemlings' baffling incompetence in life and the ludicrous detrimental effect it had on Gem society.

...Although I suppose you are entitled to a few snippets of the conversation here and there.

* * *

"_**Disgusting, worthless, irredeemable waste of Gem resourc-!**_"

* * *

Okay, maybe not Yellow's impassioned rant on Gemlings.

Let's listen in on a more productive portion.

* * *

"You _can't_ be serious," Lapis said incredulously, her mouth agape.

"We are always serious," Yellow remarked.

"What Yellow is trying to say," White cut in, shooting a sidelong glance at Yellow that caused her to flinch, "is that she believes it would be prudent for the couple to be rid of this burden."

"My children are not a burden!" Lapis snapped, the water in the air rippled like mad at her outburst. "Peridot and I had them, we love them, we're raising them! We are not going to abandon them all because you say they're incomptent! They're infants for goodness sake, they can't even keep their heads up!"

"You misunderstand," White replied undeterred, gesturing to the nest. "You've lost one already, and from what you told me it was due to a feeding accident of this, _Zebra's_, own accord. I can say most assuredly that this will happen again, perhaps a lot sooner than you think."

"What? You're telling me my kids are gonna keep getting into statistically improbable accidents because the universe hates Gemlings?" It was now Peridot's turn to act incredulous.

"Now, we didn't explicitly say that the universe at large hates Gemlings," Blue began.

"We're saying that those little pests are doomed to an untimely end at the cold unfeeling hands of fate because of their complete and utter ineptitude at self-preservation," Yellow finished, her frown unchanging.

"Which is why Yellow suggests a more... er, what's the word?" White pressed a finger to her lips.

"Humane?" said Blue.

"Is that how you say it?" White raised a brow. "I've only ever seen it written. Ahem. As I was saying, it would be more humane for the Gemlings to be euthanized early on, preferably before both parties suffer more painful loss."

"Steven this is not something a boy your age should be listening to," said Pearl, swiftly covering her hands over Steven's ears.

"Wait. What's _euthanize_ me-?" Steven asked but was quickly cut off by a shush from Pearl.

"_This is not something a boy your age should be listening to_," Pearl repeated with a tone of finality.

Lapis looked like she had been struck. "I... I can't make that decision."

"It's not something anyone should make," said Garnet, stepping up beside Lapis and placing an affirming hand upon her shoulder.

Peridot joined Lapis by her side and asked pleadingly to the Diamonds, "Isn't there anything we can do? You know things we don't. Maybe you could help us."

"I don't know how we help," Blue pondered. "Gemlings are notoriously inept at survival. Even back when still had maturation pods."

"Maturation pods?" Peridot raised an eyebrow.

"Ancient Gem technology," Yellow answered as if it was common knowledge. "Back when we relied on Gemlings for the propagation of our kind we had developed a device that would keep them in suspended animation while ensuring they are safe and maintained until they were old enough to serve the Authority. Ultimately the process proved to be less than foolproof as we still lost untold batches of the infernal things to bad luck and chronic malfunctions.

We dismantled all of them once the Kindergarten process was implemented and, well, I believe we still have the old schematics somewhere. Not that I think it would help your predicament. Your Gemlings probably won't last very long."

"Ahem," Blue cleared her throat loudly, drawing a sheepish look from Yellow. "At the very least, there is a strong possibility that at least one will survive out of the litter."

"One? Just one?" Lapis sounded hollow.

"Heh, it's better than nothing," Yellow shrugged callously. "If you plan on continuing this endeavor I'd suggest mentally conditioning yourself to loss."

"Oh no, I couldn't bring myself to understand the burden of loss and despair," Lapis deadpanned, her voice positively dripping with sarcasm. "Not like I was trapped in a waking nightmare for a thousand or so years and struggled with maintaining healthy relationships with friends while questioning my own trust issues..." she grumbled sullenly.

"I think we'll ride this out the best we can," said Peridot squeezing Lapis's hand. "You'll see, all of our kids are going to make it. They're going to grow up and learn about Earth culture and build wondrous inventions and maybe eat one of those '_hot dog_' things Steven keeps bringing up an-"

"Forgive me for interrupting your hope filled speech but your Gemlings are trying to escape the nest," White deadpanned.

Quick as a whip Lapis and Peridot snapped their heads over to the cradle with such speed it was a miracle it didn't separate from their bodies and fly off into the distance. The color drained from their faces as one by one each of the Gemlings somehow crawled out of the nest and flopped onto the ground like flaccid pancakes. They then began wriggling around aimlessly, wandering without direction out of morbid curiosity and misguided fear.

The rest of the day went by rather excitingly.

* * *

Another week flew by when the Diamonds had finally left Earth to return to Homeworld. They had an extended stay to bond with Steven and to better understand the alien nature of his personality and outlook on life. A lot of it was spent on trying to teach them tactfulness.

Admittedly the time spent at the barn showcased their strange distaste towards the subject of Gemlings and while Steven wasn't angry he had to show them that he was a little disappointed at how they acted, even they had a rather... unique way of expressing their compassion to the couple.

Not that he knew any better as a human, mind you.

Anywho, once the Diamonds had their share of perspective they left to address the topics of Gemlings to their Gem masses in a manner that wouldn't result in the kind of awkwardness a parent would have with children asking them where babies come from.

Since then Lapis and Peridot have been hard at work tending to their children with a much more resolute outlook.

Peridot had been given a veritable treasure trove of ancient Gemling data to work with. She wasted no time in compiling a new compendium in between taking care of the Gemlings.

She had suggested building the aforementioned maturation pods to Lapis but her spouse had vehemently denied its creation, her reason being that she didn't want her kids stuffed into the Gem equivalent of a pickle jar left to ferment for a few decades just for the sake of paranoia. That being said the maturation pod was a last resort and even then Yellow Diamond wasn't at all impressed with its overall success rate.

She'd hoped it wouldn't come to that point, no matter how desperate they became.

* * *

The Summer heat was especially blistering today, which meant that the sun was out and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, which meant that today was the perfect day for a family picnic.

While the noontime sun beat down unrelently on the fleshy heat stroke prone forms of Beach City's human denizens, Lapis and Peridot took it all in stride, setting up a worn tablecloth in front of their barn as the couple set the Gemlings atop it to move around on. Nearby Peridot brought in the blowup pool to give her kids the chance to play in water outside of baths (and perhaps with the secret intent of seeing how stage one Gemlings performed in shallow waters).

For the better part of the afternoon their time was enjoyable. The Gemlings were uncharacteristically calm and well behaved with only Casteen mildly spoiling the mood by bawling as she always did, although granted this was because Tierie had accidentally rolled over her during her nap, smothering the poor peridot beneath her sibling's girth.

That being said, the Gemlings, though still psychologically underdeveloped, were having a good time. At least from how Lapis and Peridot saw it.

Kara was clinging to Ally who vigorously tried to free herself from the former's grip to no avail. Kara was stronger than the smaller peridot and the two remained locked together in a tight embrace only rarely rolling to the side every so often.

"Pii! Pii!" Ally squeaked in protest but Kara ignored her.

"Ree! Ree!" Kara chirped back.

Tierie as mentioned earlier was quietly asleep, wheezing soft high pitched sounds that was only barely drowned out by Casteen's halfhearted whimpers.

Tyra was full of energy for something so small and squishy and utterly death prone. Instead of paddling around the pool with her other sisters or napping she was preoccupied with crawling. The destination wasn't important, but even with her world stuck in a blurry Picasso-esque mess wrought with unfamiliar smells and her hearing a cacophony of white noise polka, she was bent on slowly going to wherever it was she was moving towards.

That's why it was really too bad whenever she got within an inch of the cloth's edge Lapis would casually pick her up and set her back down on her lap where she would try to flee and explore again, much to her annoyance.

Ferra, Wanda, Cea, Vivvie, Gwyndolin and Merida were all in the kiddie pool, each enjoying the cool waters in their own way.

Gwyndolin and Merida simply floated in the two inch deep water, their bodies naturally buoyant like a balloon. They floated motionlessly in the current carried by their oversized heads beside Ferra, who had been unfortunately flipped belly side up squirming helplessly against the sun's sweltering rays.

Meanwhile, Cea, Vivvie and Wanda had taken to the water with awkward grace and skill.

Wanda with her mechanical movement was dog paddling quite well for a three inch peridot. While slow, clumsy and overall uncoordinated she did make the distance, although her lack of control meant she collided with the pool wall several times as the waves threw her off course.

Speaking of waves, Cea and Vivvie were undoubtedly the stars of the pools. They didn't swim any faster than Wanda did and still floundered around foolishly like a chicken with its head cut off, but their latent talents for hydrokinesis, though still very much limited, was on full display for all to see.

Cea's face looked strained, like she was trying to defecate. Her eyes were screwed tight and the water around her warped and rippled as though disturbed by a thrown pebble. Beads of water formed, flickered and dispersed around her person in a thin mist, impressive for something so small.

On the flip side, Vivvie was struggling to fly. Her wings of water could be seen forming from the water at her side, lifting and sculpting itself into some amorphous facsimile of bird wings that frankly didn't quite take off seeing as they fell down after a few seconds of weak tension. This resulted in a small wave rippling around her, causing her siblings to succumb to the mercy of the light current.

"Omigosh! Lapis!" Peridot called out excitedly, pointing over to the pool. "Did you see that?! Cea and Vivvie are manipulating the water!"

Lapis rolled her eyes playfully, "Uh, yeah. That's what we lapises do."

"Yeah, but have you ever seen Gemling's do it so early on?" Peridot questioned.

"Guess not. We must be the first Gems to in a long time," replied Lapis.

"Come on over and get a better look," suggested Peridot. "It's fascinating stuff. Only a month of Earth time and they've showed a great deal of progress with their hydrokinesis. Before long I hypothesis they may be able to hold simple droplets without breaking."

"Save the science talk, Peridot, we're here for fun," Lapis quipped, setting Tyra beside her other land bound siblings before strolling over to the pool. She watched as Cea and Vivvie made adorably futile attempt after adorably futile attempt to manipulate the water around them. "Ah, reminds me of my first time."

"You struggled too?" Peridot looked curious.

"No, I terraformed my first plot of land perfectly within minutes." Lapis replied as a matter o'factly.

"Pfft, show off," Peridot mumbled.

* * *

"Ree, ree," Tyra chirped triumphantly, finally unbound from her seemingly endless cycle of crawling towards an unreachable destination. "Ree, ree, ree."

But now with her mother's attention elsewhere she redoubled her efforts for freedom upon the wild untamed grassy underbelly of her home, blissfully unaware of the dangers that lurk beyond the relative safety of her family. For with each plodding inch she took with caterpillar-like grace she earned the ever increasing intrigue of a mysterious blinking stare from deep within the choking foliage of the corn fields.

An emaciated and disheveled looking North American opossum was hidden in the shadows of the corn stalks, her beady black eyes fixated on the happy family just several feet away. She kept her eyes trained on the most vulnerable of the brood, the blue caterpillar-like thing squirming further and further away from its family and closer into the opossum's waiting clutches.

In spite of the hunger gnawing at it from within the opossum was strangely focused on Tyra of all things. It could've made off with the corn it was hiding in or any of the other fruits and vegetable Lapis and Peridot had planted, but no. It had some strange fixation upon the Gemlings, an unbearable compulsion to feast upon the rubbery membrane of an alien organism that lacked any proper dietary sustenance the opossum required.

This compulsion, compounded with its own maddening starvation, made its mouth froth with rabid bloodlust.

But even when driven by base instincts the opossum waited patiently in the foliage, biding its time for the perfect moment to strike.

Meanwhile, Tyra had finally managed to make it past the cloth. She chirped happily and marched forward unabated with every intention of wandering around freely from her mothers' suffocating overprotectiveness.

She'd barely made it a foot into the grass when the opossum pounced on her.

It rushed forward on all fours, skittering furiously upon the dirt with desperate purpose making a beeline straight for Tyra. It closed the gap in seconds, stopping right in front of the unaware Gemling, staring at it momentarily with twitchy eyes brimming with hostility.

By the time Tyra finally registered that something was amiss, she let out a high pitched screech of pain and terror just as jagged chipped teeth forcefully clamp down on her body like a bear trap, tearing into her skin as ichor leaked messily from the wound.

* * *

"Our children are cute," Lapis admitted, gushing at her children in the pool.

"Why not let the rest have a swim?" said Peridot. "I don't think I've witnessed Kara and Tyra display any aptitude for hydrokinesis yet. I'm interested to see if they're capable of it."

Lapis scoffed. "Of course they're capable of it, they're lapis lazul-"

"REE!"

A sudden high pitched wail cutting through the air turned Lapis and Peridot cold beneath the sweltering sun. They quickly swung around to see what the commotion was and a familiar feeling of fear welled up from within the core of their being.

Their children were in danger again.

They took their eyes off them for a single moment and already they found themselves in death's shadow, just as the Diamonds had warned them.

To their utter horror they bore witness to the ungodly sight of some rabid Earth mammal viciously attacking Tyra, it's ghastly appearance bringing to mind an aberrant fiend from deep beneath the planet's crust.

The wretched thing had poor Tyra hanging in its jaw, crooked teeth piercing into the supple flesh of the Gemling as it gnashed at her like a chew toy, lips dripping with light bluish ichor. It greedily drank the viscous fluid like it was the sweetest nectar ever conceived and then promptly proceeded to thrash about wildly, whipping its head to and fro in a frenzy of motion as it splattered the screaming Gemling's ichor all over the picnic.

Consequently it landed on some of the other Gemlings who partook to the sudden shower of sibling sustenance with eagerness.

Lapis's vision went red. Gone was the feeling of horror, in its place was pure unfettered rage. She sprang into action immediately, raising her hand and manipulating the water in the pool to form a massive hand. The Gemlings who were still swimming sank onto the pool floor where they flopped around like a fish on land.

Peridot followed suit with her spouse's initiative and raised both hands in the air, calling forth a collection of rusty metal garden tools at her beck and call.

"Let. Tyra. Go!" Each word that left Lapis's mouth thrummed with the sky shattering force of a thunderstorm as she slammed the water fist atop the opossum.

But the opossum, driven by pure adrenaline and desperation, ducked out of the way at the last moment like a blur just inches away from the tip of the water hand's fingers. It locked eyes with Lapis, black and animalistic meeting blue and baleful.

"I got it!" Peridot yellow, launching a volley of tools at the opossum in an attempt to get it to release Tyra. But the wily creature didn't relent in its escape. It ducked and weaved through Peridot's metallic assault as though possessed by an unnatural force. When the last tool failed to make its mark, the opossum turned on its heels and made a break back into the cornfields and towards the woods, seeking to escape her pursuers with its prize in tow.

"No, no, no, no! Not again!" Lapis paled, forming wings in pursuit of her injured child. "Peridot, I'm going after that thing!"

"I'm coming with you!" Peridot announced but stopped in her tracks when Lapis turned to her with pleading eyes.

"No. Stay here and look after the kids. We turned our eyes away just once and look what happened. Keep them safe no matter what."

"I..." Peridot looked hesitant. "...I understand. Get Tyra back, please."

"I will," Lapis forced a smile, but deep down she didn't know if she could back up her promise. With one last glance at her Gemlings, she turned and gave chase in the sky, keeping a sharp eye out for the intruder that had made off with Tyra.

* * *

Tyra was beyond suffering.

The pain she felt being chewed on by a rabid opossum was terrible but was made much worse with the world around her warping and twisting like it was suffering from an epileptic seizure.

It also didn't help that she was hanging limply from the creature's jaws slowly bleeding out all the while her oversized head bobbed back and forth in the wind at the speed they were traveling at.

"REE! REE!" Tyra never stopped wailing. There wasn't much else she could do other than wail and flail helplessly as the opossum strayed further and further from her home, from her family.

"Ree! Ree... ree..." Each cry grew weaker and weaker each time she spoke. She persevered regardless hoping that her mother would find her or that her incessant wailing would eventually annoy the opossum to the point of abandoning her, but it was beginning to look grim for the lapis lazuli.

"Ree... ree... ree..."

* * *

"Tyra!" Lapis shouted into the forest, eyes frantically darting side to side like a mean game of pong. The opossum she was looking for had eluded her in the thick underbrush and she had resorted to searching on foot guided by Tyra's loud cries that had gone disconcertedly quiet up until recently.

She'd been searching for close to an hour now. The noonday sun was beginning to set on the horizon and things were looking bleaker by the minute, but her strong maternal nature refused to let her stop or even rest until she found her daughter.

Preferably _alive_.

"Tyra!" Lapis called again hoarsely. She didn't know why she was calling out to the Gemling, she couldn't hear far as she could tell, but that didn't stop her from doing it anyway. "Tyra, where are you! Cry out if you want mommy to find you!"

She was starting to grow desperate. Denial crept in her voice her voice and she was saying things that sounded unreasonable for a Gem in her situation.

"Come on out, Tyra! Mommy will feed you your favorite food tonight, epoxy resin mixed with powdered clay! Pretty please?!" Her voice cracked, footsteps slowing to a discouraged crawl.

"P-please..."

Lapis stopped. Her hands fell to her side as she lurched forward in a defeated slump.

She was at a loss at what to do. She just didn't know where Tyra or that infernal vermin were. Sure, she could keep combing the woods until morning came but those were the actions of a person deep in denial.

This was it.

This was the stopping point.

This was...

"Huh?" Lapis muttered, flinching at the dazzling points of light reflected against her eyes. She blinked away the spots in her vision and to her shock, she saw a faint but lustrous blue gleam in a nearby clearing just past the thick brush. She recognized that type of gleam, it was very same gleam she herself were capable of if standing in bright sunlight, it was the gleam of a lapis lazuli gem: Tyra's gem.

"Tyra!" Lapis shouted. Filled with renewed energy and hope she rushed towards the clearing, breaking into a full sprint clearing away the branches and bramble that barred her path.

"Tyra! I'm here! Mommy's her-!"

There was only silence.

* * *

Tyra fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, her body wracked with unimaginable agony. Broken and deflated she could only lie on the forest floor, bleeding, wheezing, vulnerable. She twitched sporadically like a muscle prodded by a taser, glassy eyes glazed over as ichor dribbled from the corner of her lips and gnarled puncture wounds.

It was honestly a miracle she was still alive at this point, but then again Gemlings were a smidge more resilient than most infants out there.

The opossum was nowhere to be seen. The wretched thing had dropped her like a bad sandwich and fled into the bushes, leaving her all alone in the middle of a predator infested forest.

"Ree... ree..." she wheezed, feeling a bit better now that she was free from the opossum's slobbering disease ridden mouth. "Reeeeeeee..."

Slowly but surely her inorganic membrane began to knit itself back together. Within a day or two her grievous injuries should all heal back up and she'll be right as rain, looking as if she hadn't even been viciously mauled by a rabid opossum earlier. By then she should be able to start crawling back home, wherever home was.

Odds are she didn't even remember anything about her current life beyond her base needs being satisfied.

Regardless of whether or not her mental capacity was able to recall what her mothers were like or if she even loved them, all she needed to do was be undisturbed for about twenty-four to forty-eight hours until her self healing is complete. Then, she could be on her merry way wherever the road takes her.

Yessiree, everything was beginning to look up for good ol' Tyra.

...At least until the bushes started rustling in her field of view.

Tyra lazily lolled her head around to get a better look at the bush. The blurry image of leaves being disturbed was enough to throw her back into a panic, but none more so than the telltale blobby shape of that dreaded opossum again.

"Ree! Ree!" Tyra cried out, but her voice came out in inaudible whispers.

The opossum slowly crept to the prone Gemling predatorily, its beady black eyes blinking unnervingly so the closer it got.

"Ree! Ree!" Tyra kept crying, struggling to crawl away with useless limbs to no avail.

The opossum stopped mere inches in front of her and rose to her full height, staring down on the Gemling hungrily. Then a small juvenile opossum popped their head up from her side, followed by another and another and another until six juvenile opossums in total were present all hanging from the mama opossum's back, their marble eyes looking hungrily at Tyra.

They all attacked without warning.

Spurred by hunger the juvenile opossums all clamor around Tyra, sinking their needle-like teeth into her flesh and ripping her apart piece by piece, little by little, one bite at a time. Each act of primal violence the opossums committed sent a spray of ichor misting over their bodies, dyeing them light blue and glossing over their matted fur with a vibrant sheen.

"REE! REE!" Tyra wailed futilely. It would've made sound if an opossum hadn't tore out a part of her neck.

Another opossum jammed its mouth into one of her eye sockets and bit down hard, sending a gout of dark ocular ichor into the air. It nibbled on the pulpy bits digging straight into her cranial cavity and violating her headspace.

"REE! REE!" Tyra's screams came out in gassy wheezes. It was all she could do as she was being eaten alive.

Fortunately for Tyra her suffering soon came to an end when all the juvenile opossums gathered around her and promptly bit down on all of her limbs.

"REE! REE! RE-" Tyra's wail was cut off mid speech as the mama opossum approached her and clamped her cavernous jaw tightly over the upper half of her head.

Together the starving family pulled with all their might, steadily crawling backwards to better tear off a piece of rubbery morsel.

They pulled, lifting Tyra off the ground and stretching her as far as her body would allow like a blue wad of gum that screamed the whole way through.

They pulled.

And pulled.

And pulled with rabid determination until finally...

***SNAP!***

Tyra's body tore apart in seven different places, the most grotesque of which left only her lower jaw intact, the upper half of her head having been greedily devoured by the mama opossums in a single throaty gulp.

The rest of the family ate her remains in eerie silence, lapping up the splattered ichor for good measure.

And then, as quickly as they had shown up, the opossum family fled into the undergrowth, never to be seen again.

A moment later, Lapis showed up to find Tyra's scattered remains, drawn by the glimmering light refracting off the Gem on her severed left hand...

* * *

My, my. What a rather gory display.

What kind of monster would allow such a thing to happen to such a sweet innocent Gemling?

To give it a faint glimmer of hope, only to snatch it away in the end?

Oh, right.

I jest, I jest. Of course, all in good fun, really.

As you just witness, victim number two was none other than adventurous little Tyra. The curious lapis lazuli born with an explorative nature and a penchant for motion.

But we all know how the old saying goes: _curiosity killed the cat_.

In this case, curiosity got Tyra barely a foot into the outside world before she was attacked, absconded and promptly eaten alive by a pack of ravenous **opossums**.

Had she stayed within her quaint familial bubble the day could've gone quite differently, but the natural urge to stretch her limbs and take advantage of her newfound mobility to explore the outside world beyond her humble homestead proved to be too much for the little Gemling.

Admirable, but mistaken.

And what of Lapis and Peridot?

Now that another of their children have been ripped from their arms will they finally take the Diamond's words to heart and err on the side of caution?

Or will they continue to soldier on, driven by this delusion of an idyllic family life free from plight and heartbreak?

Only time will tell, or should I say, _**me**_.

Two of the twelve Gemlings have bought the proverbial farm, only ten remain.

Who will be next on the chopping block?

How will they go out?

The anticipation is the best part, I always say.

But until then I do hope you enjoyed my story so far, friend.

Once again, I am the Narrator, your humble guide to this tragic comedy and I thank you for listening.

Let's have ourselves a well deserved break.

Maybe go grab yourself some victuals to snack on.

All this storytelling has left me absolutely famished.


End file.
